Hi everyone, I'm new to Yafaray and I didn't clearly understand how it works.I've created a scene with cycles, where the illumination comes only from the outside, from my hdr image that I've used as environment texture. Now I'm trying to render it with Yafaray, but when I click on "Render" it lasts just few seconds and it doesn't render anything (it's not that the image is black, simply there is nothing). I've tried to put a point as light type but the result is the same. Where am I going wrong?Also, I've got some problems with the interface: whenever I go to world settings when I'm using YafaRay, blender freezes. Is it a problem caused by the hdr image?

Are you rendering on Windows? To test whether your YafaRay installation works is better using one of the demo files, you can find link on the left column of the site. Also if you enable back console on windows installations, YafaRay outputs there any error message, for instance when a texture is not found. Remember that YafaRay can not load Blender encapsulated textures, you must unpack first.

Yes, I'm rendering on Windows.I've just tested two of the demos in the site and it renders a black image. My steps for installation where:-Download YafaRay 0.1.5 for windows-go to user preferences-> add -ons ->install from file-select the .zip downloaded-enable render yafarayDid I miss something?Btw I've tried to render a simple colored cube and in this case it works.

Well I don't know for sure, if Blender allows you to enable the addon then it is correctly installed. Also be sure YafaRay is selected as active render engine on the top of the interface. Demo files should work correctly.

Yes it is set to active.I don't know what is changed but now it seems to render something, but there is another problem.The scene is now rendering in black and white: I thought this could be a problem of materials because all the objects' materials where made using nodes in cycles, so I've tried applying new simple materials (all shiny diffus) but it doesn't work anyway, while it correctly shows the hdr image for the environment.

This is what I think from analyzing your scene:* Background texture rotation in YafaRay is probably different from Blender Internal/Cycles. So, you didn't have the sun in the side of the entrance. Therefore the only light received by the interior objects was the (weaker and blue) light from the sky. So, as the couch is red when illuminated with blue appeared black.

* In general renderers have difficulties rendering interiors from background IBL lights, as light paths are not easy to be found.

So, I have done the following changes to your scene. Please see the example image with the results:

* Set the World texture rotation to 180º. That way the sun would be in the side of the entrance, giving brighter and more white light to the scene.

* Create a simple plane covering the entire entrance "hole". Make sure that the normal of that plane points to the interior of the building. Then, in the properties panels of that plane, in the "object properties", go down until you find "Enable BG portal light", set it the power to, for example, 4 (but you can experiment until you get the illumination you want). A "portal light" is a trick to let the renderer know where the background light comes from so it's easier to find the light paths.

Thanks a lot.Yes, the scene I've rendered with cycles is similar to that, I just have to apply some texture and make the couch look like leather as I did with the other; guess I'm gonna start with some tutorials. Thanks again!